THE BRAE WAS LANG AS WELL

The February walk was on the Black Isle and we had arranged parking at a small pull-in off a narrow, single track road. There were signs asking people not to fly tip and luckily nobody took their old mattress with them, so we kept the countryside quite clean and tidy.

Sharon and Pam were discussing why Bob had left Inverness quite so early, even though it was our walk and we had a duty to be the first on site. Sharon is unaware that punctuality is one of the highest virtues that to which one can aspire.

Everyone arrived in plenty of time and we managed to start walking before the allotted hour of eleven, which I consider to be a good thing.

I'm not sure if the danger sign is to warn of the dangers of playing on timber stacks, or whether it refers to a bunch of old codgers walking through the woods.

Wildlife - a frog. As he cannot read a map, he won't be aware of how much danger he is in (and I do think he is a he and not a she). The danger arises because we found him quite early on in the walk and we would not long have crossed the Allt a' Mhadaidh - the Fox burn in Gaelic. Foxes are one of the many predators of frogs!

And, oops, he's gone!

Sandra and Sharon stop for a well earned drink - probably gin, if the facial expressions are anything to go by.

 The sun soon came out and it became very pleasant walking, although there does seem to be some confusion about where we are actually going.

Blue skies.

Everyone's life has a crossroads and we were waiting at ours for the blue, yellow and red anoraks to catch us up. This led to a bit of debate about which country had a flag of these colours. Romania was the popular choice.

It turns out, it was probably the right choice, but there are a number of other countries that use flags with the same colours - notably Andorra and Chad. Indeed the flag of Chad differs only in the shade of blue used - Indigo instead of cobalt blue. Who knew?

The girls are actually walking in the right order as the blue section is nearest the flagpole, gold in the middle and red flying. There are strict rules governing the size of the stripes and the relationship of the stripes to the height of the flag. You'll be pleased to know, that I won't go into these issues here.

The Romanian flag in this form is quite recent and quite old at the same time. It was first used in 1866 until the communists took over in 1948. Before then the stripes were horizontal rather than vertical. The modern flag was re-established when the communists were overthrown in 1989. However,the old communist flag only differed in that it had a coat of arms on the gold stripe. It was common to cut the coat of arms out of the flag as a protest and, sometimes a circular hole is cut in the modern flag as a sign of protest against the government to this day.

Finally, (I can here you sighing from here) the largest flag in the world was a Romanian one made in 2013. It was 1146 feet by 744 feet and weighed nearly 5 tons. The record had previously been held by a large flag of Lebanon.

Are you not amazed that there is a world record for big flags?

 From flags to fungus.

I have to admit it took me some time to try and identify this fungus - I think it is Netted Crust and it is fairly common throughout the UK and Europe. It is tasteless, but inedible and, so, of no culinary value!

We were now out of the forest plantation and on much narrower paths, so it became a little quieter!

We had a very early lunch stop as we seemed to have found the perfect spot on the ruined walls of an abandoned house and outbuilding. Generally speaking these abandoned ruins date back to to the late 18th Century and are the result of clearance or of a change in land use or economics, making agriculture unsustainable. This is actually listed in the National records as an abandoned two compartment longhouse with stock enclosure, with a well preserved annex at the north end.

It makes you wonder what the original inhabitants would have thought of a bunch of people having a picnic  here, especially on the Sabbath.. There are a number of other remains

 of similar type around this area, which is known as Agneshill. The name probably derives from St Agnes. She is the patron saint of chastity and virgins! No comment.

Apparently, she was just a teenager when she was martyred in Rome about 304. She refused a number of suitors, who denounced her as a Christian. After a number of ordeals she was to be burnt at the stake, but the wood would not burn or the flames parted around her. You would think that would have been a sign for the Romans and she would have been spared, but, no, the officer in charge decided it was more than his job was worth, so he cut off her head. That worked.

On that note, here we are enjoying our lunch.

 As we were leaving, Dave offered the sage advice that we needed to watch our footing here as a fall was a possibility. 

He was right.

Liz was obviously paying attention.

Back on the path, we passed a little fairy castle. Now that I am an expert on flags, I can tell that this is obviously the personal pennant of the fairy, because no modern country uses a completely plain red flag these days. There were some gulf states as well as Thailand and Zanzibar that did use such a flag in the past.

Something, probably a badger, uses this track through the fence. There was quite a bit of evidence of mammals moving from the more natural woodland back and forth into the plantation trees.

 We emerged from the enclosure of the woodlands to find some fine views over farmland to the Cromarty Firth.

It looks like some time since this cart was used for any weddings.

You will be amazed and pleased to know that a google search of Riana's Krazy Kitchen failed to produce anything.

The views to the Firth were expansive and they showed the sheer scale of oil rigs against the landscape.

Perhaps Riana is still on the go with her Krazy Kitchen as we found a little sales point for fresh farm eggs which Robin was not allowed to buy, because he eats 'inordinate' amounts of them already.

As we crossed over the top of the hill to the north facing slopes of the Black Isle, we gained views of the hills to the north including Ben Wyvis. You could also see the Novar windfarm, one of the first large windfarms in the Highlands.

Sheep and neeps - nearly a Shepherd's Pie.

From Shepherd's Pies to Mince Pies - well, Christmas trees.

 We were now on farm tracks, walking into the wide blue yonder.

As we approach the home farm there is a very nice little arched bridge across.the Braelangwell burn. There is archaeological evidence of long term farming buildings and use of land stretching back centuries here.

The Doocot at Braelangwell. I cannot fond out whether this was contemporary with Braelangwell House, but it might be reasonable to assume that to be the case, it being quite common for large houses to have doocots as a source of fresh meat during the winter months. The roof is fairly new.

Black and White Horse(s).

A kind of play on two different whiskies. 

Braelangwell House.

This dates from the late 18th Century, although the building you see now was substantially altered and extended between 1839 and 1845 by the then owner,  Lt-General Sir Hastings-Fraser, who served the Empire in India and eventually fell out with Lord Dalhousie, resigned his commission and died in London in 1869.

The house is quite famous as the birthplace of David Urquhart, a diplomat, writer and politician. He failed to complete his Classics degree as his widowed mother's finances failed! He is most famous for his involvement in Greece and Turkey. He supported the Greek Nationalists in the civil war. He then was involved in settling the border between Greece and Turkey. He was heavily involved with Turkey after that and became a huge supporter of all things Turkish. So much so, that he introduced Turkish Baths to the UK.

As an MP for Stafford, he seems to have been a bit of a rebel, campaigning vigorously against Lord Palmerston's foreign policy and was most put out at British involvement in the Crimean War, being of the view that Turkey could easily fight its own battles without assistance from other powers.

Bizarrely, he was also an opponent of the imposition of sanitary reform and opposed the Public Health acts, which seems a little at odds with his support of Turkish Baths.

He died in Switzerland in 1877.

Jacque is a bit of a swinger with her dapper moustache.

Dave is just a big baby.

We walked on the diversion designed to keep walkers away from the house.

Which was probably just as well, because the gates were shut!

 Spring is in the air.

Two bridge photos. 

A tree gargoyle.

 A metaphor for Labour's Brexit policy.

Soon we were back at the cars and on our way to a much needed cup of something and a sticky cake at the Fortrose Cafe. They had set aside seats for us all and the cakes and drinks were very good, although Hugh seemed to prefer to sook his thumb.

 

The end of another walk with good weather and great company.